Sugar Beet Investigations. 165 



per acre. Many more cases might be added, but these are sufficient 

 for comparison. 



The question at once arises whether the results obtained on our 

 experimental plats this season represent approximately what the 

 farmers of the state may expect to do when growing a commercial crop. 

 All very well know that it is easy to select a small piece of rich land 

 and by giving it extra care to grow a crop that will far exceed in yield 

 what can be obtained on larger areas. 



It is not believed that the results obtained need be discounted on 

 account of these considerations. In the first place, the farmers were 

 inexperienced with the crop and did not know the conditions most 

 favorable to its growth. Brief instructions were sent out from this 

 office, but more than half of the farmers either did not receive them or 

 paid no attention to them. Some of the plats were on well selected 

 land, the beets grown at appropriate distances and given good culture; 

 but in more cases one or more of these conditions were wrong. Many 

 plats were planted the same as potatoes, three feet or more between 

 rows. Necessarily the result was either a low yield of beets or a larger 

 yield of overgrown beets with a lower percentage of sugar. (See page 

 241.) In August and the first part of September members of the 

 Station staff visited and inspected 249 of the experimental plats and 

 found a large proportion of them needing cultivation and weeding. 

 The rainfall in July was excessive (see page 241), and for several 

 weeks, just when the farmers should have been actively engaged culti- 

 vating their crops, they were not able to get on the land. The weeds 

 grew apace, and when the soil was fit to till the farmers were so pressed 

 with their regular work that the beets, being a side issue, were very 

 generally neglected. 



The wet July was followed by a severe drought in September and 

 October ; the soil baked very hard and conditions were unfavorable. 

 Notwithstanding these seemingly adverse conditions the average yield 

 as given above is very satisfactory. Again in October agents of the 

 Station went to many of the farms and helped to harvest and weigh 

 beets from 1 78 plats. The beets were washed and trimmed, as required 

 by the factories, before weighing, so it is known that the estimated 

 yields, in these cases at least, were correctly made. Instructions for 

 harvesting and estimating yields were sent to those farmers who it 

 was found impracticable to reach in person. So there scarcely can 



